The romantic view of bike racing holds that winning comes down to epic battles between elite athletes. The nerd's view is that a cyclist is his own toughest foe, because aerodynamic drag is the greatest force keeping a rider from going faster--and his body creates nearly 80 percent of that drag. Me? I'm a romantic backed up by nerds.

That was never more true than during a trip to the San Diego Air & Space Technology Center Wind Tunnel with Lance Armstrong in November. It was a reunion of sorts for the scientists, designers, engineers and coaches that made up the champ's F1 tech-development group from 2004 to '05. The task was to find the optimal balance between minimizing drag and maximizing power output and comfort. I came away with one big lesson about aerodynamics: Position is a behavior.

When you look for a draft behind a fellow rider or put your hands in the drops on a descent, you're making behavioral decisions in pursuit of aerodynamic advantages. It's a mistake to think that because you're in a wind-tunnel-optimized position, you no longer need to make good decisions. You still have to be mindful of wind conditions and terrain to take advantage of that position. Here are three things to remember.

KEEP YOUR HEAD IN LINE One of the more heated debates during Lance's session centered on head position. He has a hump in his back, which prevents him from assuming a complete "hiding behind the hands" position. To get closer, we had him bring his chin down and forward. Lowering Lance's head even farther brought his drag numbers down significantly, but I pointed out why this wouldn't work: He wouldn't be able to see where he was going.

Within reason, bringing the chin down and forward is advantageous because it positions the head in line with the shoulders. This helps reduce the total frontal area your body presents to the wind, whether you're in a time-trial position or just down in your drops bridging a gap in a crit. But it takes focus to maintain this position, and riders tend to raise their heads as they tire. A tip: Visualize your head and neck sinking into the space between your shoulder blades.

ADAPT TO THE WIND AND TERRAIN Aerodynamics become more important as speeds increase, because the faster you're going, the more power you'll need to go faster still. This gets to the heart of one of cycling's greatest dilemmas: Do you pedal on a descent or get into a ridiculously aero tuck? During sustained descents at speeds above 45 to 50 mph, move into a tuck--you don't have the gearing to go much faster. Time trials don't descend mountains, so on smaller descents in those events, move temporarily to a more aerodynamic, but less sustainable, position and pedal [A]. When you get back to level ground, reset to normal [B], and when you encounter a hill, shift to a position that's not as aero as the other two [C], but allows you to temporarily trade a little drag for more power.

TRAIN THE POSITION We took Lance to the velodrome to confirm that the best positions in the tunnel were the fastest in the real world. It was also helpful to see the differences between the faster and slower setups. We had Lance ride a series of 2-kilometer efforts; he changed his position but kept his speed constant. The "faster" positions were easier, because he needed to produce less power to maintain speed. This realization provides context for any cyclist and can help you stick to the right positions during training.

Top Aero Tips Don't have access to a wind tunnel? Here are three tips for improving your aerodynamics on any road ride:

Lead with your chin. Not all the time, but when you're focusing on being aero, lower your head by bringing your chin down and forward, toward your stem.

Maximize your horizontals. Any part of your body that's horizontal should present only its leading edge to the wind. Lower your elbows so your forearms are parallel to the ground. This may mean that riding on the hoods might be better than moving down to the drops.

Coast downhill with your cranks level. Analysis of descending positions from Discovery Channel riders in 2005 showed their drag numbers were lower when their pedals were level compared with having one pedal down.

Please enter your email or turn off your ad blocker to access all content on

Signing Out...

Are you sure you want to log out?

If you are the only person using this device,
there’s no need to log out. Just exit this page
and you won’t have to sign in again. But if
you’re on a public or shared computer, log out
to keep your account secure.